Kate Gosselin Overcomes Custody Drama To Impress Judges On 'Dancing With The Stars'

Receive the latest television updates in your inbox

After the dance, for the first time since the show started last month, Kate found herself on the receiving end of supportive comments from the judging panel.

Kate Gosselin's custody battle with ex-husband Jon Gosselin may have caused a hiccup in the reality mom's tango rehearsals, but when it came down to performance time, the star managed to bring her game face to Monday night's "Dancing with the Stars."

The mother of eight and her professional dancing partner, Tony Dovolani, whipped out a slow, but mostly technically accurate, tango – to a "DWTS" version of Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment."

After the dance, for the first time since the show started last month, Kate found herself on the receiving end of supportive comments from the judging panel.

"We're having a mini-breakthrough tonight," judge Bruno Tonioli commented. "At the moment, I actually believe you were dancing. The penny has dropped. Tough love works for you."

He warned, however, that the TLC star needs to continue her training.

"Don't get too excited," Bruno added after Kate smiled. "The technique is still very, very bad, but you're actually starting to move out there. Keep going."

The rest of the panel mirrored Bruno's comments and the pair's score reflected the dual message.

Kate and Tony took home 14 out of 30 for their technical score and 18 out of 30 for their performance score for a total of 32 out of 60, the lowest score of the evening. ("DWTS" announced last week each pair would receive two scores).

While Kate made improvements, footage from rehearsals showed that her training was nearly derailed after news broke last week that Jon was filing for custody of the former couple's bunch of eight children, blaming the reality star's "DWTS" schedule as keeping her from her kids.

"That's how I've been living for two years. Every day, there is something huge," Kate told Tony during a particularly tough rehearsal moment. "I wake [up] and check the news first thing in the morning to see what my day is gonna bring me… what hell I'm gonna go through. I mean, this is custody stuff playing out in public and that's what I'm talking about. That's what I bring here and I can't let go."

Having clearly mended fences after their rehearsal spat two weeks ago, Tony took an encouraging stance with his partner.

"You're there to prove a point. If you can't let go, he wins. Does that make sense to you? Will you let that happen?" he asked.

It appears she didn't because following their "DWTS" tango, Kate showed a renewed spirit for competition and asked the public to vote to keep her.

While Kate's personal drama was a major focus of the show, as for the actual dancing, it was Olympic men's figure skating gold medalist Evan Lysacek and his professional partner, redhead Anna Trebunskaya, who topped the leaderboard for the second week in a row.

The determined athlete and his partner churned out an intense and sexy tango that had judge Bruno Tonioli in awe.

"Strong, powerful, with a hint of cat-like arrogance," he said as the pair scored 26 out of 30 for their technical moves and an equal score for their performance.

Their total score (52 out of 60) put them steps ahead of the competition.

Not far behind though was Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough.

The two nabbed 25 points for their technical score and 25 for their performance score putting them at a hearty 50 out of 60, after showing off some smooth Rhumba moves.